I thought people might be interested on and update on this. Here is the start of the zoom level 0 counter file. I have decided to use 1 row of vertical text on the left side of the counters rather than two as its clearer. I will remake a template file with a single text box here and issue it with the next update of the counter mod kit.

Here for starters are French army corps HQ, Brigade HQ and a Line Infantry Company. In this mod Corps HQ’s will be used to command troops held above divisional level such as artillery and independent cavalry brigades. Brigade HQ’s will act as “relay stations” to keep regimental HQ’s in command range of there divisional HQ’s and / or control their own units.

Also see in the post below is one of my new type propaganda posters. Which I will be setting up as unit portraits of particular units in the game. This one is for a French Line Infantry Company. Note the counter graphic in the top left hand corner.

Interestingly it would seem that the French Army led the world in 1914 in its provision of wartime colour photos. There are a number of very good shots of their troops as well as those of allied armies. However the same is not true for the Central powers. Therefore while I plan to use a mixture of black & white and colour photos / map images for the victory & title files, for the propaganda files as here will I use a combination of images from uniform books such as those by the Funcens and Andre Jouneau, and landscape backgrounds from photos. Incidentally the landscapes in question are mostly cut out of photos taken at Ypres during a battlefield walking holiday in 2003.

Hi, just a quick update to show the state of the zoom level 0 counter sheet. I have also revised the existing unit portraits and provided some new ones so that there are currently 4 for each side. Eventually I plan to have 14 German and 16 French. Does anybody know if the game can work with more than 30 Propaganda posters at one time as I could easily do another 30 or so.

The French army for zoom level 0 are now just about done apart from Moroccan and Senegalese troops, African light infantry *Penal Regiment” the venerable 280mm M1885 Howitzer and the 80mm mountain gun. Also done are two rows of line troops for the German Army.

Next up Bavarians, Saxons, the Prussian Guards and the German Heavy artillery including “Big Bertha”. The attached zip includes the zoom level 0 work so far and the draft word table I am using to keep track of what is what.

The actual mod as opposed to the mod kit used to make it has so far taken about two weeks. This included redoing the on counter text to take account of collar tabs for the French army and shoulder boards for the Germans. And redesigning the mod kit itself as I go on the basis of experience. However I have also been off work for the last week recovering from an operation so have made more progress than usual in this time.

The French are now finished for zoom level 0. I decided against including their 280mm howitzer as further research suggests it may not have made it into the field until 1915, I have included the obsolescent 80mm mountain gun instead. Also I will be extrapolating my artillery data from the GDW “Over The Top” miniature rules set, this as full tables on the artillery used by all the major and pretty well all of the minor powers.

Set out below is the zoom level 0 table as it now stands. In addition to the French you will see that the Bavarians have been added, The Prussian Guard are next.

As you can see I am almost done now. Prussian guard and Saxon units have been added along with infantry regiments raised in Wurttemberg and Baden and heavy artillery. Still left to do engineer and bridging units for all armies and completion of the propaganda poster/unit portraits set. Once this is done I will move on to do zoom levels 1 to 3.

You will notice that some of the Prussian guard light infantry units have been missed out. This is partly a result of juggling with the limit of the number of counter slots available and also a result of the fact that these units don’t appear to have be featured in any of the orders the battle for 1914 clashes in the West. At some point there is an argument of doing a variant or this counter set missing out the Bavarians so that other units could be covered in more detail.

At the moment I am planning that the second module in this series will be “The Rage Of sheep” covering the battles of the Belgian army in 1914. The Bavarians will not feature in this module. However the number of counter lines available to the German side will go down to seven, since apart from 6 rows of counters for the Belgians, 1 each will be required for French and & British marine/naval units. Units of the German naval division and some extra German artillery equipment such as the 17cm Minenwerfer will also be covered.

Conflict of Heroes "Most games are like checkers or chess and some have dice and cards involved too. This game plays like checkers but you think like chess and the dice and cards can change everything in real time."

No Problem guys. The title is based on one used for an HPS France `1914 scenario “The Rage of Dreaming Sheep” covering the 1st Belgium sortie out of Antwerp, on 25th August 1914, itself inspired by a German Staff Officers unflattering description of the Belgium Army after it has fallen back on the City as “nothing more than dreaming sheep". I thought it would make a rather catcher title than the more prosaic “Gallant Little Belgium”.

Wasn't poking fun at anyone here. Just trying to be funny. Sorry if I offended.

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Conflict of Heroes "Most games are like checkers or chess and some have dice and cards involved too. This game plays like checkers but you think like chess and the dice and cards can change everything in real time."

Please see below what is for now my final version of the zoom level 0 Countess set. You will see that I have decided not to include any specific units from Baden so that I can include cavalry units from Wurttemberg.

Next step the victory screens and more propaganda posters/unit portraits.